New drug shows promise against rare skin cancer - KYTX CBS 19 Tyler Longview News Weather Sports

(CBS) - Doctors say a new skin cancer drug is proving to be the greatest advance so far in treating the disease. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine finds that Erivedge is effective against basal cell carcinoma, the most common cancer in the U.S. Researchers tested the drug on patients with a rare syndrome that can cause hundreds of tumors. They found Erivedge worked both to treat the tumors and to prevent new ones from forming.

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(CBS) - The threat of tuberculosis is growing this morning. A drug resistant form of the disease is infecting more people than previously thought. Researchers at Johns Hopkins studied TB cases in China and found that of 4-thousand newly diagnosed patients, one out of ten had a drug resistant strain. The study calls for a more intensive push to develop new antibiotics to battle the tougher form of the disease.

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(CBS) - Doctors have taken a step forward in developing non invasive testing for birth defects. Using blood samples from the mother and saliva samples from the father, researchers at the University of Washington say they can read a fetus's entire genetic makeup. The screening may eventually be used to check for thousands of genetic disorders. And it could be a safer alternative to the more common procedure of drawing fluid from the mother's uterus.

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(CNN) - You've probably heard about the "Morning After" pill - it's taken to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex. Well, the New York Times is reporting scientific evidence that shows the pill doesn't work the way many people think it does. Doctors say the pill just delays ovulation.

But, labels on the pills say they block fertilized eggs from implanting in a woman's uterus - descriptions that have caused some religious groups, conservative politicians and others to claim that the pills cause abortion.